蕃
fānfán

foreign things

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 番 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

番
番 Sound component
fān to take turns

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjonparhedge, screen, fence
bjon[b]arluxuriant (growth)
Zhengzhangpan
ban
Unicodebiæn

說文解字

艸茂也。从艸番聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)